the ST. MARK’S SCHOOL OF TEXAS DALLAS, TEXAS
remarker
VOLUME 65, NUMBER 5 MARCH 8, 2019
RACIAL INSENSITIVITY
v The country watched as two of Virginia’s top elected officials had their lives and political futures torn apart after one was accused of and one admitted to wearing blackface during their college years. As the nation continues to wrestle with how racial bias should be addressed, we spoke to members of our community to understand why the right conversations need to be had.
‘
Change happens by starting these conversations.’ – Lorre Allen, Director of Human Resources
v Story, pages 6-7
STORY Sam Ahmed, Sid Vattamreddy, Colin Campbell, Aaron Thorne, Lyle Ochs PHOTO ILLUSTRATION Kamal Mamdani, Kyle Smith
University School of Milwaukee teachers visit school, study character and leadership program by Sai Thirunagari wo teachers from University School of Milwaukee (USM) visited campus Feb. 26-27 to learn about character and leadership education. A co-ed, secular private preparatory school in Wisconsin, USM is developing its own program and trying to accelerate the process by learning what works at other schools. “They are thinking through how they’re going to build out their own efforts in character and leadership education at their school,” Minda and Malcolm Brachman Master Teacher Chair Martin Stegemoeller said. “They are looking around at various schools around the country to help them to save them some time so they can pick and choose and decide what’s right for them.” Emily Ihrke and Samantha Adey, the USM visitors, first met Stegemoeller five years ago. “I had the pleasure of seeing Dr. Stegemoeller present about [the] St. Mark’s Character and Leadership program at a conference in Washington D.C.,” Ihrke said. “At that time, I was impressed by the rich content of St. Mark’s program, as well as its scope; it’s rare for a school to have such a comprehensive program for all students in grades 1-12.” According to Stegemoeller, such campus visits often occur af-
T
ter a faculty member presents at conferences. Stegemoeller will speak in New York and Atlanta in April and at the Montreal International Boys’ School Coalition (IBSC) conference in June. “Having people see people speak at conferences and then word of mouth from that — those are the only real ways to get people interested,” Stegemoeller said. “Right now there aren’t any other visits planned, but it wouldn’t surprise me if these three conferences in April and June would generate some interest and get some people wanting to come to campus.” After the conference in Washington D.C., Adey and Ihrke invited Stegemoeller to Summer Spark, an annual two-day symposium at USM, where he spoke and met their English department. “During Dr. Stegemoeller’s visit, several of our colleagues were struck by the depth of his knowledge and commitment,” Ihrke wrote. “It’s due to Dr. Stegemoeller’s expertise and generosity of spirit, as well as [the] school’s commitment to character and leadership education, that we’ve chosen to visit St. Mark’s.” Stegemoeller coordinated their visit here and sees mutual benefits in hosting such trips even though Marksmen already
have a Leadership and Ethics Program. “They’re really smart people, good folks, and we’ll learn a lot from them, too, in our own way,” Stegemoeller said. “We talk about empathy and compassion and being able to enjoy more of life by sharing other people’s experience. Well, that’s what this is.” Stegemoeller knows starting a new program at USM will be a formidable endeavor, but he believes the faculty are up for the challenge. “That is just a logistical problem of the highest order, Stegemoeller said. “Learning what you want to do and why and how is a huge task in its own right. I’m hoping that they come away with a sense of how daunting the task is and the kind of resources it’s going to take at their school to make it work.” Furthermore, Stegemoeller hopes Ihrke and Adey learned that character and leadership education can be a culture rather than merely a program. “I hope they take away the power of having multiple people, multiple good educators, at a school doing this work earnestly as opposed to just one person or two whose job it is to try to do this for a whole school,” Stegemoeller said.
issues
6
THEIR UNTOLD STORIES
too much racism. One time a guy who was homeless came up to me, my brother and dad and said something along the lines of ‘our race wasn’t welcome here’ and that the war was about to begin and our people in Syria were going to get bombed and destroyed. Other than that I’ve only had rare racist comments made or a few times people asking me if I speak English but I’ve never had my life threatened over race or anything like that. And I think I’ve told people some of these stories before.
Parent Travene Crawford — Since moving to Dallas, I have had experiences where people have looked at me and made assumptions about me. When coming to my home, strangers will ask me how much I charge to clean houses. This woman walked up to me at my front doorstep and asked me 'Oh, I've seen you here before, and I was wondering how much you charge to clean.' And I said that I lived here. She continued to talk to me for five more minutes and insisted that I helped her to find someone to clean her house.
On the front of the newspaper was the picture of the angry mob, and the guy I worked next to was right on the cover.
Lee Smith '64 — During my freshman and sophomore years, in 1966, in college, I was working in a Sears store in Chicago in the advertising department. The group I was working with at Sears was mixed, and we worked in the same production room. Dr. King came to Chicago and led a march for open housing and a community center called Gage Park, so there was this guy I worked next to and there had been a march over the weekend in Gage Park that had resulted in a angry mob of racists that came out to stop the march. I come to work on Monday morning, and on the front of the newspaper was the picture of the angry mob, and who is there standing on the curb with this outraged expression was the guy I worked next to.
No matter what race or religion, everyone has untold stories.
This guy said something about don’t speak Spanish in the United States; he said that we speak English here.
I have had experiences where people have looked at me and made assumptions about me.
‘Our race wasn’t welcome here’ and that the war was about to begin.
Junior Obaid Akbar —I haven't experienced
THE REMARKER • MARCH 8, 2019
Sophomore Luis Garcia — One time I was
with my dad at a shopping mall, and we were just looking around at some of the clothes around there. I was little, so I don’t remember much, but my dad told me that there was this guy that gave him a dirty look and said something about speaking Spanish because my dad was speaking Spanish to me. This guy said something about don’t speak Spanish in the United States; he said that we speak English here.
‘You black girls are going to keep your mouth shut this quarter.’
Right when I walked past their table, they both immediately took their purses.
Zach Gilstrap '18 — I was with one of my friends, and he lives in Highland Park. We are walking upstairs from a bakery, and I see these two elderly white women who were dressed in really nice clothes and had nice handbags. And right when I walked past their table, they both immediately took their purses and moved them off the table as if they were avoiding me. But then all of a sudden, this eight inch rat comes out of the wall and scuttles across the building, and everyone sees it. The craziest part is that those two women didn’t move an inch. My parents told me that I am going to be in a different environment where people are not going to be as receptive to you as a person just based on the color of your skin.
Coach Dwight Phillips —
My son was about seven or eight years old, he was playing basketball, and I was sitting in the front row of the stands and my daughter and her friend were sitting next to me and just cheering for my son. When the halftime was over, the referee comes over and looks at my daughter and her friend and says ‘You black girls are going to keep your mouth shut this quarter.’ As a father, I always say, you can mess with me, but you don't mess with my kids. You don't treat kids that way regardless of color. I have dealt with racism for 55 years every day in my life because of the color of my skin. I don’t ever plan on changing. What I’m trying to do here is to build bridges. I’m cognizant enough to realize that there are issues.
RACIAL INSENSITIVITY | continued from page one
v Recent events show that
conversations
STARTING THE
America still has a ways to go in racial acceptance. It's imperative that we at 10600 realize this issue is still with us.
v
FROM THE LEGAL EXPERTS
We sat down with Alex Abdo '99 and human resources director Lorre Allen and asked about the legal ramifications of racism in the real world.
Sid Vattamreddy: What's the school's approach to racial sensitivity? Lorre Allen: e cover sensitivity training every year with the aculty and staff as a part of the inservice day training. We cover our non discrimination policy and retaliation or no retaliation policy. If an individual experienced any injustice or stereotyping, we have steps that we would ollow. e first would want to speak to the individual, and then we would look into the matter. here are three sides to every investigation or every matter that comes orward he person who s complaining, the person who the complaint is against and the truth. e will go through our regular process as outlined in our aculty and staff handbook. SV: How can we at 10600 Preston Rd. improve race relations? LA: ne o the biggest things is that we as humans, we have biases. I you try to get to know yoursel and become sel aware and you get to know the person that s in ront o you, we can break down those biases. eople are missing opportunities by not getting to know the person that s in ront o them. y trying to understand we also begin to learn, and my whole career has been about learning. SV: What do you do when someone has a question about a workplace incident LA: hen somebody has a legitimate uestion they want to ask me, I don t get upset. hey re asking me a uestion is because they want to know. et s have that conversation, and I ve had some really good intentional conversations with people who just want to know. ad I not started Lorre Allen a conversation, they HR Director could have walked away with misin formation and a different perception. hese can be uncom ortable situations which are hard or some people to go through, but it s important that we do.
SV: How did you get involved in the American Civil Liberties Union (ALCU)? Alex Abdo: I first got to A U as a legal intern in my second summer in law school. I was working on post civil rights litigation, mainly ocused on the treatment o detainees by the military and the IA in the a termath o . A ter law school, I went back as a legal ellow, and I ended up working on very similar issues, mostly post civil rights issues in my first to years at the A U.
BE IN MY SHOES – DWIGHT PHILLIPS HAND IN HAND
As race continues to be a issue in America, it is necessary to understand the experiences of those around us.
Alex Abdo '99
SV: Did you know you wanted to go into Civil Rights Defense? AA: ivil rights litigation is not what I set out to do when I went to college. A ter my two summers interning in law school, I got very e cited about the possibility o using my law degree to advance causes I believed in. he possibility o what could be done with a legal degree in terms o an impact on the real world, that s what really drew me in. SV: Why did you want to continue your work, and what drives you? AA: I came to see criminal defense as one of the most important civil rights fights that goes on everyday. It is the circumstance in which the government most directly touch es the lives of most people in the country. You have people who are imprisoned and put through this process that isn t always consistent or ideal in terms of fairness or due process. I became committed to the idea that everyone deserves a fair shot, even if they did something wrong. he people who work in public de ense, they are often underfunded and have to go against people with many resources on the other side.
INTERVIEWS Sam Ahmed, Sid Vattamreddy, Colin Campbell, Aaron Thorne, Lyle Ochs ADDITIONAL REPORTING Eric Yoo PHOTO Kyle Smith ARTWORK Matthew Coleman
issues
THE REMARKER • MARCH 8, 2019
7
Parents, teachers, students and alumni recount their personal experiences with stereotyping and injustice in the workplace and the world. There are times where people will come up and use certain type of slang and use a certain type of language with me.
Junior Kasen Roberson —
A lot of people will come up to me or people I know and make conversation with them about something that they're not very well versed in just for the fact that they are trying to seem like they are diverse. There are times where people will come up and use certain type of slang and use a certain type of language with me. It makes me feel uncomfortable because I know that they don't go home and talk like this. This is not something you regularly do, so in a way you're changing yourself to make me feel comfortable.
To move past that we have to set a new precedent. There needs to be a baseline level of respect.
Senior Mark Weisberg — There was a peri-
od of time for three years I wore a Jewish star, and everytime I went to the airport, I would take it off because you never know what people are stereotyping for. Just because we live in our own little bubble, it’s completely incorrect to assume that we're not a part of it. We are, and we help set that climate. It's so hard to change a political climate, and right now our political climate is that those kinds of things are acceptable. To move past that we have to set a new precedent. There needs to be a baseline level of respect and our part in setting that baseline level of respect is embodying it wherever we are. If we act like upstanding citizens all the time, no matter where we are, that will set a precedent.
It's not really fair to expect a person from one religion or one background to speak on behalf of an entire religion.
Waseem Nabulsi '18 — Anytime something bad happens in the news that in any way involves the Muslim community, it always feel like we are looked at as kind of like the spokesperson for all Muslims. Because for the most part, it's not really fair to expect a person from one religion or one background to speak on behalf of an entire religion. This isn't just a St. Mark's thing; it is an everywhere thing. I had to argue with a student who very passionately tried to debate with me it is the case that most Muslims are terrorists.
I feel like that played into my race as an Asian and how we are stereotyped to be quiet and submissive.
Edward Ro '18 — So during basic training, I was, for a short period of time, something called the flight chief. WI was the go-to-guy to communicate with if we were doing something bad or anything like that. We had this one upperclassman, and he would ask me how many words I spoke that day because I was ghosting basic, which is trying to go through basic without doing much, so I tried not to speak but I was the flight chief. I feel like that played into my race as an Asian and how we are stereotyped to be quiet and submissive. So he would tease me like that. And once we switched flight chief to a white guy, that guy never asked the new chief how many words he spoke that day.
By the numbers:
60 percent of workers have experienced race-based harassment
34 percent of race related workplace discriminations
84K total workplace discriminations charges filed
398 millions of dollars secured for victims in private sector
29K total race related workplace discriminations suits filed BREAKING THROUGH THE WALL In the midst of race-related stereotyping and injustice being frequently discussed topic in current events, community members need to break down the wall to have these important conversations about how we view each other.
Sources: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
I don’t get a lot of in my face racism, but some people go out of there way to not be racist.
Math instructor Marjorie Curry — A
lot of things I experienced come from the way people respond to me. For instance, if I say I work at St. Mark’s it’s almost always followed up by, 'what do you do there?' I don’t get a lot of in-my-face racism, but some people go out of their way to not be racist. It’s almost overcompensating. For example, someone telling me how much they love Oprah Winfrey or that they voted for Obama. That type of thing is really not necessary.
You do have to make sure that, as a black man, you shouldn't have to always watch your step, but that's just the society we live in.
Senior Shane Ndeda — This is probably the summer entering my junior year. It was at North Park Mall, and I was going to watch a movie. I had some time, so I walked by some nice department stores. I don’t even go into the store. And then I saw that there was a mall security guard who was just sitting on a bench, and he saw me stop and look. And then he stood up and decided to walk in my direction, but I didn't think anything of it. Then he actually tapped me on the shoulder and he asked me why I was looking at the clothing inside the department stores. I talked to my parents later about how you do have to make sure that, as a black man, you shouldn't have to always watch your step, but that's just the society we live in.
For me, it was more than just a joke
I
know first impressions aren t fi ed, and I really do try not to be udg mental, but something about red struck me in a very wrong way. Maybe it was his wearing a MA A hat to see how many people would start a fight as we walked around the ashington . . area, his no ious, bright green t shirt or his propensity to interrupt other students attending the ongressional eader ship rogram with us I don t know, but I decided to give him the benefit o the doubt anyway. I had a week with him after all, and there was no reason to burn bridges so early on the first day. here was no reason until I saw his face, which contorted and tensed as no one gave a reaction to his hat. is ear to ear grin sheepishly shrank as his interruptions slowly faded into irrelevance. It was an observation that stayed in the back o my head as his own CJ Crawford turned towards Communime, and red s cations editor smile returned. hat s your name he said. . hat s not really a black name is it ou look more like a amal or something. o. here s no way I heard what he said correctly. I shook my head like someone had pressed a reset button, and I ignored his first spoken sentence to me. here s no way. ou wanna hear a oke Nope. Sure thing, man, I said. I really should ve walked away, but I stayed long enough to hear his oke. ong enough to hear him say that un orgivable, crowd silencing word. I heard everything this time. o mistake. As soon as his words *Fred is an alias
registered in my head, my thoughts ollowed closely behind, red hot. ho is this kid hy is he this way? Who told him saying anything like that is okay It s not okay. e s not okay. o one prompted him. e needs to be more aware. Someone needs to let him know. houghts almost mani ested as action as I clenched my fist but stopped. A moment o clarity sei ed my anger ueled response. A moment to think back to a talk my ather had with me. A talk all black men have with their sons. ou don t have the lu ury to e press how in ustice makes you eel as a black man, the lessons all said as clear as red s chatter in my ear. It s a unny observation yet grave in its implications. y all means I m human, but by the world s means, I m a black man. he recognition o my identity as raw ord Marksman, artist, athlete, riend, son, brother is not enough due to the historical and social context attached to my excess in melanin. I must recogni e the sum o all my parts. ersonally and racially. As the minority, I m representative o all who came be ore me, come with me and will come a ter me. Statements like our name doesn t sound black, or ou don t act, talk black only work to try and separate my sel rom an essential aspect, that being racial identity, o mysel . Remaining strong in this identity, no incorrect or biased claim to my name or my actions can threaten to weaken my udgement. I can t afford to prove people like red right, eeding his alse ego built on tearing others apart. I have too much attached to my skin. red ed himsel around the negative reactions people gave him, so my resolve to ignore red starved him, and the strength in my own identity only grew.
issues
8
THE REMARKER • MARCH 8, 2019
LEADERSHIP WALL
Debate plans for last tournament
Recent controversy surrounding the statues of Confederate veterans at Pioneer Park calls into question the very definition of leadership.
by Eric Hirschbrich he school s debate team is hard at work preparing or their final conference of 2019. In order to be fully prepared for their debates, the team has begun researching arguments and strategies in preparation or the ational ebate oaches Association A tournament. ebate team member Sahitya Senapathy says that the debate is committed to being prepared for the tournament, and works towards accumulating enough material to compete well. e ve got the A tournament, Senapathy said. e re doing a lot o research, cutting a lot of new a rmatives, a lot o new policy proposals that were going to advocate for as well as researching negative strategies that will be useful in beating other teams.” Senior Ma ang describes the focus of the team on identifying important information on the topic before the tournament. “We are doing more in-depth research into the topic,” Wang said. “That would include more a rmative and negative research on reducing restrictions on legal immigration.” Senapathy notes that the debate team focuses specifically on preparation for the debate, and that their performance during debate competitions usually re ects the degree of preparation and work they put into their arguments. I think St. Mark s has historically won rounds based on our research,” Senapathy said. esearch has been an essential point in our historic legacy of St. Mark s and our debate program. ood research that is strategic has generally led to better results in tournaments.” In addition to their large amount of research, the debate team is also coming up with new debating strategies. e re going or certain strategies on the immigration topic that will be harder for the other teams to answer,” Senapathy said. A lot o the research that were doing is targeted toward specific nuances of the topic that other teams may not have an easy time answering.” he debate team looks to make this last tournament count, as it is the last debate tournament some of the seniors will compete in. iven that this is the final tournament o the year and the last tournament of for some of the seniors on the team, Senapathy said. I think that we re all really amped up and trying to win as many rounds as we can and make our research worthwhile.”
Leaders or liabilities? T
hey were pivotal to the Civil War. They were praised as the greatest leaders of their time. But they fought to preserve centuries of slavery. efferson avis. Stonewall ackson. Robert E. Lee. Albert Johnston. The allas ity ouncil voted to remove each of these men from the 60-foot high, 123 year-old Confederate War Memorial at ioneer ark emetery eb. . The political controversy surrounding the monument raises many questions: How are leaders judged? hat conte t must be taken into account when judging them? Those are questions the Lower School eadership all tries to answer. ••• The Leadership Wall did not start with those questions in mind. Originally, it was meant as a platform to commemorate people who had done great things, or had been in great positions of power. “[Under former Head of Lower School arbara ork , it was meant to recognize strong leaders and what it meant to be a leader,” Head of Lower School Sherri arver said. ur first nominee, eorge ashington, e emplified that. ut as the ower School changed their ethics curriculum, arver s goals for the wall changed as well. “Our shift here as a school has become so much more intentional on character and leadership, arver said, “so we thought about how we could urther refine the process. arver saw this as an opportunity to Sherri change the scope Darver of the Leadership Lower School Wall, to focus Head more deeply on the connection between leaders and the values the ower School ocuses on. “The responsibility of being a leader, empathy, compassion, all of the virtues we have in ower School, we apply to those leaders and pull those virtues into the conversations that they have in their classrooms, arver said. This process was demonstrated in the selection of the newest member of the eadership all, osa arks. arks was nominated at the start of the process
by si different students. “This year, we had several nominees, arver said. he figures that rose to the surface and had the most nominations were osa arks, eil Armstrong, Alexander Hamilton and Muhammad Ali.” A ter arks was voted in, four students, one from each grade, were chosen to research her life. They delivered a presentation to the entire ower School March 8 during an assembly. “We sort of say, what things did you see in osa s that stood out the most for you personally, and why arver said. And they then take that back to their classroom. For a more controversial nominee, such as Muhammad Ali, the process may have played out differently. “He had a lot of great things that he did, arver said, but he also had a lot of controversial things. Because of where they are developmentally right now in the ower School, it s di cult to really point out all of those controversies.” arver still works to develop the proper historical context when nominees have complex histories. If a leader such as Robert E. Lee was nominated, she would work to educate students about the full implications of his leadership. ee may be part o our history, arver said, but we also have to look at whether he was always leading in a positive manner. If someone that controversial rose to the top of the bin, we would absolutely have to provide context for his actions.” or A U.S. history instructor Bryan Boucher, that context is vital when discussing the memorializing of
controversial figures. I think i they re being put up in honor or remembrance of veterans and their causes,” Boucher said, “then I do think that there s a value to having that physical artifact and having future generations confront the challenge of that.” Boucher sees preservation become a major issue when the monuments become a focal point for oppression or hate. Some o these statues were put up at a time that were really meant to reinforce a lot of the racial segregation and prejudices of the preand post-Civil War era,” Boucher said. “They have become a cause that certain groups promoting hateful ideas have rallied around.” e doesn t believe the problem has a universal solution, but that it should be decided by the community as a whole. “As a historian, there s a concern about covering up the past,” Boucher said. I think that also has to be balanced by how memorials are being interpreted in current day and current time and by different groups of people.” The Pioneer Cemetery decision and the Leadership Wall may not be the same situation, but for Boucher, they both teach the community about how to face its history. “Our past is not always pleasant,” Boucher said. “We can often learn a lot about presentday issues by looking at past issues and confronting them.”
STORY Alam Alidina, Ishan Gupta ARTWORK Michael Lukowicz
In my opinion Honesty, per‘ severance and responsibility because you need to be honest and the only way you can be a leader is by telling the truth, or else no one will trust you and you’ll be doing the wrong thing. Reagan Graeme fifth grader
Students give their take on what they think should be valued in a leader.
‘
They should be kind and open-minded. And they should have courage to do things that some people might think is the right thing but are too scared to do it. Mateen Mostafavipour fifth grader
he e co de t i ‘ their choices. They’re not shy to speak their beliefs. They’re organized. They just know everyone. Austin Williams freshman
always that ‘ oneThere’s guy who wants
to do everything. You should be able to lead and guide others to do something but you shouldn’t be forcing others to do what they don’t want to do. Sean Zhao junior
should have ‘ They integrity, be courageous, persevere, and a leader has to to listen to other people’s thoughts.
Dylan Bosita fourth grader
T THE LEADERS ON THE WALL •Norman Borlaug •Mahatma Ghandi •John Kennedy •Martin Luther King Jr. •Abraham Lincoln •Nelson Mandela •Rosa Parks •Jackie Robinson •Mother Teresa •Harriet Tubman •George Washington •Malala Yousufazi
TIPPING OVER After the City Council’s decision to remove Confederate statues from Pioneer Park, traditional leaders fear their monuments could be taken down as well.